I have never been able to get through this song without crying. This awesome rendition by Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill is no exception. Watch especially the reaction of the members of this audience, who are mostly from the Country music world, a part of the entertainment world where Christians are still welcomed and appreciated. Seeing these big names being moved by this hymn is touching. So be prepared to thrill, weep and rejoice!

Back by popular demand, Cory Heimann‘s This Easter video, featuring the music of Catholic artist Rich Dittus. Cory is the fabulously talented young Catholic designer and videographer. Support his work!

“…Meanwhile, Charles Skidmore, principal of Arlington High School, where a Maria Talks poster hangs in the nurse’s office, said, “I’m assuming because it’s from the Department of Public Health, it’s balanced information. There’s so much information available now, at least this has someone standing behind it that is a state-sponsored organization.” (emphasis mine)

I read the quote from the principal and my reaction is, “Orly?” (that’s teenspeak for “Oh, really?” said in a sardonic and sometimes sarcastic tone.) So what is the state doing that Principal Skidmore feels so secure in?

“The commonwealth is using taxpayer money to tell kids how to get a secret abortion, and that’s wrong,” said Linda Thayer, a former Boston schoolteacher who is vice president for educational affairs of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, which this week took aim at the site. (emphasis mine)

Ah, so let’s look again at the ‘assumption’ that Principal Skinner is making with regards to some posters hanging in his school. Scripture warns us directly to trust in God, not in earthly power, yet, we do it all the time. Government is our friend, it’s here to protect us, we are America, we are the land of the free and the brave, the great democratic experiment. Surely, we can trust those we elect to make the best decisions for us. Can’t we?

If that were ever true (and I doubt it were), it is far from true today. Today, our bloated government is chockful of liberal bureaucrats who are intent on pushing an activist social agenda that you and I not only do not want, but realize is damaging to us, our children, our country and our future.

A state-funded sex education Web site that tells teens an abortion is “much easier than it sounds” has drawn fire from outraged pro-lifers who say mariatalks.com is glossing over ugly truths, steering teens toward the controversial procedure and counseling them how to keep mom and dad in the dark.

Aren’t you glad to know that public money is being spent to tell kids how to avoid the law, skirt their parents, trash their young lives, and do longtime psychological damage to themselves?

I think Mr. Charles Skidmore is naive at best, and disingenious at worst. He has passed the buck along and is not accepting responsibility on behalf of these kids, or just as likely, is complicit in the sexualization of our youth. Either way, it’s not a pretty picture in Massachusetts.

Ugh. I’d parse this article but I’m tired and discouraged. Enough to bring it to your attention today.

Please pray for an end to abortion, and the strength to love and teach our kids in God’s ways, not the ways of earthly princes.

The rare flower, so named for a smell likened to rotting flesh or meat which it emits in bloom, has blossomed in the school’s sustainable biospheric greenhouse.

A native of Sumatra, an island in western Indonesia, less than 50 of the largest variety of corpse flower, the titan arum, are known to have ever bloomed in the United States. The smaller konjac arum, like the one at Darrow, is typically found only in special botanical gardens, museums, and private exotic greenhouse collections

Here is the visualization of how it smells:

I waited 10 years to smell rotting flesh? Blech!

Oddly, some people seem to like the smell.

Make your plans now, because the 2 day blooming of this rare, 8 ft. tall oddity pulls in quite a crowd. The horrified girls in the picture below are probably well on their way to developing a lifelong phobia of gardening.

We have been at our parish since we moved to the state. From the start, we knew we were blessed to have such a loving community be our parish home. But one Sunday, perhaps a couple months after moving here, I was surprised and upset that the Prayer of the Faithful was hijacked by someone whose intent was to lecture us on how we should vote. I do not now recall the exact prayer but it went beyond the usual prayer for our leaders, and prayer for social justice and veered off into something about “taxes being used to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth” sort of thing. My husband and I exchanged shocked glances at the blatant attempt to editorialize the prayer. So after Mass, I approached Fr. Tom, who didn’t know me from Adam, and told him that I really hoped that this was the last time that the Prayer of the Faithful was politicized. He looked very surprised, I remember. I still don’t know if I did the right thing, or the right thing in the right way, but that was the last time we ever heard ideology mixed into our Prayer of the Faithful.

I thought of that time when I came across this article on the purpose for a Prayer of the Faithful, and how it should be done. Deacon Frank Agnoli, the Director of Liturgy for the Diocese of Davenport writes up a guiding reflection on this underappreciated part of the Mass. No mini-homilies or political rants, please!

Prayer of the FaithfulAnd, together, we raise our voices in prayer. Baptized into Jesus Christ, we share in his priestly office of offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father, and of interceding on behalf of the world.

It is important to keep in mind how the Prayer of the Faithful is structured. The presider first addresses the people, inviting them to prayer.

Next, the deacon (or, in his absence, another minister) announces the intentions. We call these “general” intercessions because they ought to be petitions that the assembly can, by and large, agree on, and because they do not focus on the needs of any one individual.

This is not the time for a “mini-homily,” the place to make a particular point; or to tell God how to answer our prayers. It is neither the time to pray for an unknown “special intention” (to which the assembly cannot assent) nor to offer prayers of thanksgiving (the Eucharistic Prayer makes that part of its structure and focus).

Rather, we are called to imagine the reign of God as proclaimed in the Scriptures and give voice to what we see: a world of justice, a world where the hungry are fed and the sick made whole, a world where death and tears are no more. Finally, the presider closes the intercessions by addressing God the Father, through Christ — the one through whom all prayer is made.

Entering the MysteryDo I really believe what I say I believe? What have I done to learn more about this faith that I profess, about being a Christian?

Do I hear in the Prayer of the Faithful not a list of demands that we make on God, but instead a call to action? If I dare pray for justice, for healing, for the drying of tears — what am I doing, filled with God’s grace, to make those things come to pass?

The Ars CelebrandiAs one who leads prayer, do I let my body reflect what I am doing? Here, as well as throughout the liturgy, do I look at the people when I am addressing them? Where is my gaze when I am addressing God?

As a deacon, does my liturgical role of being the one who announces the intercessions truly reflect my ministry of charity outside the liturgy — that I am the one who knows the cares of the community so well that I can give voice to those needs before God? Or is there a disconnect between what I do within the walls of the church and outside them?

Now there remained in the camp two of the men, of whom one was called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the spirit rested; for they also had been enrolled, but were not gone forth to the tabernacle. And when they prophesied in the camp, there ran a young man, and told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp. Forthwith Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen out of many, said: My lord Moses forbid them. But he said: Why have you jealousy for me? O that all the people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit!” Num 11:26-30

John answered him, saying: Master, we saw one casting out devils in your name, who follows not us: and we forbade him. But Jesus said: Do not forbid him. For there is no man that does a miracle in my name and can soon speak ill of me. For he that is not against you is for you.” Mark 9:37-39

Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries gave a terrific homily a couple years ago at Church of St. Mary’s in Chicago. The homily is entitled, “Would that Everyone Could be a Prophet.” The Sunday readings he focused on were Numbers 11:25-29 and Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48.

From the readings, we see Joshua being jealous of the prophesying by the two elders who were not at the meeting with Moses. In the gospel, we see John complaining that some people are casting out demons in Jesus’ name, even though they were not part of his apostles. In both cases, Moses and Jesus chastise the complainers for trying to stop these works of God. Also, Fr. Barron tells us, this is the root of the problem between Saul and David, and Saul’s jealously of the divine gifts to David, threw Israel into civil war.

Fr. Barron reminds us that when we sow dissention, jealousy and turf wars, we waste the grace that God has extended to us. Instead, he challenges us to look for the grace in us, and in those around us, and cooperate with it:

The spiritual life is really about one thing: it’s about our cooperation with grace….Grace–God’s love–is surging into the world at all times, according to God’s purposes, God’s will. Our job is pretty simple: it’s to notice it and once we notice it to cooperate with it, get on board with it. Cooperate. Whether that grace is coming directly to me, or to someone else. Whether it is according to my expectations or outside my expectations…Whereever it appears, get on board, cooperate with it!

When the ego takes over, the flow of grace is blocked. That’s the central tragedy of sin. God’s love wants to surge into the world, but He gives us the privilege of cooperating with it. We can block it if we make our own ego central.

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Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt

"The work of Christ never recedes, but progresses"

The Little Way:

"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." -- St. Terese of Lisieux

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Holy Family with Ss. Michael, Francis and John the Baptist (unseen)

Prayer to St. Michael Archangel

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

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Sharing in the Commission

[L]ay Christians...have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. -- Catechism of the Catholic Church

Scattering flowers

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”–St. Jerome (quoted in the Catechism)

This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that is for ever. All that keep it shall come to life: but they that have forsaken it, to death. --Baruch 4:1

Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." --John 6:68

God has entrusted to us the news of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20

So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life. --Philippians 2:12-16

'Be still and know that I am God!" --Psalms 46:11

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God…I do not say this in condemnation, for I have already said that you are in our hearts, that we may die together and live together. I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you; I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction.--2 Corinthians 7: 1, 3-4

The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still. --Exodus 14:14

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you
who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of
gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be
tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. -- Galatians 6:1-2

You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? -- Hebrews 12:5-7

Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame -- 1 Peter 3:15-16

Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you! -- Mark 10:49

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. - Matt 6:33-34

One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple.--Psalms 27:4